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After years of trepidation, this is expected be the year a noticeable number of ash trees don't leaf out in Muncie.

"I guarantee you when the trees leaf out this spring, everyone is going to notice that we've got dead ash everywhere," said Kellie McClellan, a certified arborist and the city's urban forester.

Emerald ash borer, a beetle native to Asia, already has killed tens of millions of ash trees in Indiana and other states since being discovered in southeastern Michigan and Windsor, Ontario, in 2002. ...